Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Techmeme
March 5, 2024, 8:00 PM

Top News

Niléane / MacStories:
Apple releases iOS 17.4 with new default browser prompts in the EU, support for third-party browser engines, transcripts for Podcasts, 118 new emojis, and more  —  Today, Apple released iOS and iPadOS 17.4, the fourth major updates to the operating systems that launched in September and Federico reviewed on MacStories.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iOS 17.4 adds new EU App Store business terms, including some last-minute tweaks like no longer needing a €1M stand-by letter of credit to start a store  —  With the launch of iOS 17.4, Apple's app ecosystem changes in the European Union have gone into effect.
Reuters:
A BlackCat ransomware gang website shows a takedown notice; the UK NCA denies involvement and experts suggest an exit scam after an alleged UnitedHealth payment  —  A website used by hackers responsible for a breach at UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) has been replaced by a notice saying it has been seized by international law enforcement.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will end support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 on March 5, 2025, and consequently, for the Amazon Appstore on Windows as well  —  Microsoft is ending support for its Android subsystem in Windows 11 next year.  The software giant first announced it was bringing Android apps …
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Sources: Microsoft plans a March 21 announcement of a Surface Laptop 6 and OLED Surface Pro 10, both offered with Intel Core Ultra or Snapdragon X Elite chips  —  Microsoft's first AI PCs will be unveiled on March 21, ahead of next-gen Windows 11 AI features coming this fall.  —  What you need to know
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Meta confirms a technical issue caused an outage affecting Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Meta Quest logins, and more, for over two hours  —  Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are all experiencing issues.  The three Meta-owned platforms aren't working for many users, with the widespread outage seeming to start around 10AM ET.
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google rolls out updates to its Search ranking, including downranking content that summarizes others' work, to counter the spread of AI content in results  —  Google is rolling out a few new changes to its ranking systems in search, which are designed to help surface good content in your results …
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Google outlines updates to comply with the EU's DMA: search changes to prioritize large intermediaries and aggregators, new tools for app developers, and more  —  Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google on Tuesday outlined changes to search results and new tools for apps developers to promote their products …
Financial Times:
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Amid regulatory pressure around cloud vendor lock-in, AWS follows Google and drops egress fees for moving data out of its ecosystem; Microsoft's fees remain  —  Amazon's cloud computing subsidiary AWS has revealed that it will allow customers to transfer their data out of its ecosystem with no so-called “egress fees” attached.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
The US Treasury sanctions spyware group Intellexa Consortium's founder and one of his business partners, the first US sanctions on people over spyware misuse  —  The U.S. government announced Tuesday sanctions against the founder of the notorious spyware company Intellexa and one of his business partners.
Counterpoint Research:
Shira Ovide / Washington Post:
Rufus, Amazon's AI shopping assistant currently in testing, is mostly useless, and at best is a slight upgrade on searching manually for product recommendations  —  If AI is so magical, why are so many chatbots dumb as rocks?  —  Amazon is experimenting with an artificial intelligence chatbot to help you figure out what to buy.
More: TechCrunch, Axios, and EMARKETER
CoinDesk:
Bitcoin surpassed $69K, eclipsing its previous all-time high set on November 10, 2021, with US spot bitcoin ETFs a likely catalyst of the latest bull run  —  The success of the spot ETFs which opened for business on January 11 was the catalyst for this latest bull run for the world's largest crypto.
Bobby Borisov / Linuxiac:
StatCounter: Linux hit 4.03% desktop OS market share in February 2024, after taking 30 years to hit 3% in June 2023, as distros adopt more user-friendly designs  —  According to StatCounter's data, by the end of February 2024, Linux has achieved a 4.03% desktop market share.
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
CrowdStrike reports Q4 revenue up 33% YoY to $845M, vs. $839M est., and agrees to buy cloud security company Flow Security for an undisclosed price; CRWD up 20%  —  CrowdStrike shares surged as much as 17% in after-hours trading Tuesday, after the company reported a beat on the top and bottom lines …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Sandbox testing: Create Mail Agents in sandbox mode  —  Email is considered the backbone for any organization's communication.  That's even more true for transactional emails, which are operation-critical for any business.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Hard Fork:
The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Sewing Machine Repair Shop', With Patrick McGee
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How private equity kills companies and communities
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:00 PM ET, March 5, 2024.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
TechCrunch:
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac: